Radio-active material.



UNITED STATES PATENT orc cum scanner, or ranmuwannu-ou-rnu-onun, Guam,

mIo-Acnvu MATERIAL.

Specification Letters Patent. iaatested. July 16, 1912.

No Drawing. Original application filed January 10, 1911, Serial No. 601,927. Divided and this applica- I tion filed December 8, 1911. Serial No. 664,578.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CURT SCHMIDT, a subject of the German Emperor, works director of Alum Works, near Freienwaldeon-the-Oder, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Radio-Active Materials; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to a radio-active material, and is designed to render other solid bodies, gases or liquids radio-active by emanation, and is a division of my application Serial No. 601,927, filed January 10, 1911.

Radio-active materials already exist, in which the radio-active substance proper is mixed with inert bodies and forms together with said bodies a porous whole. These masses have the disadvantage, that many radio-active substances consist of ores or powdered residues obtained in the treatment of uranium compounds, which under ordinary circumstances are easily dissolved by liquids and color said liquids. This is obviated by the invention described in my above-named application by mixing the ra- (llO-flCtlVB substances with a binding agent such as clay or loam, which, when subjected to a burning process, forms with the radioactive substances solid radio-active bodies of a highly porous structure, from which said substances are not dissolved by ordinary liquids.

The essential feature of the present invention consists in a process of forming porous bodies of clay, or a substance containing clay, as loam, or coating vessels with such binding agents and then washing the same with a liquid having radio-active substances dissolved therein, before proceeding to the burning process. The advantage of this process is, that such bodies, especially such vessel coatings can be produced in an extremely simple and cheap manner, and such a material has the advantage that the radio-active substance proper cannot be dissolved out of the porous mass after firing by ordinary liquids, and that the liquid is not colored, which is desirable if such liquid is to be used as a drink or for the exterior treatment of the human body. By placing liquids or medicaments, to be taken internally, in the vessels they are rendered active without being colored by or dissolving the radio-active substance of the vessel.

The radio-active material is produced as follows: A portion of clay, loam or other earthy substanceis shaped or formed into a body having a large surface adapted to be put into a vessel or into a bottle, or is shaped to some similar body or vessel or a bottle or other vessel is coated with it. If it is desired to obtain a high degree of porosity, carbon or saw-dust may be mixed with the clay or loam, which. is driven off in the burning process. 'After that the porous body so formed is rinsed-or washed with a liquid in which the radioactive substance is dissolved,.so that the material'of which the vessel or the like or the coating is formed will absorb such substance. If walls or baths orother vessels are made of tiles or plates, these can be treated in the manner described. Finally, these bodies are subjected to a burning process in well known manner. If

entire vessels, such as bottles, tumblers, jugs or the like are produced, their exterior surfaces can be glazed. Further,-the stoppers or lids can be produced from this substance.

In such cases in which, for example, clay or loam-like materials have themselves a radio-active property, it is of course not necessary to wash them with other radioactive liquids bqfore burning.

The bodies mayreceive a diiferent degree of radio-activity by suitably choosing the concentration of the-radio-active solution.

Claims 1. Process for producing radioactive materials, which comprises forming argillaceous substances into suitable forms, then rinsing or washing the same with radio- 7 active liquids and finally burning them.

1 Q J a :3. Pmvcss for proxhzmng radm-actzve maas my mventlon, I have slgned my name 111 tel-ink, winch emupnses \vnshmg a vessel presence of two subscrlbmg wltnesees. of an :u'gillzuremis substance wlth a radio- UR ID active liquid and burning the vessel to cause 0 T SCHM- the radin-nctlvo substance of the hquld to be fire-muted to the vessel.

In t'vst-nnon'y that I 01mm the foregolng itnesses WOLDEMAR HAUPT, HEN RY ,HASPER. 

